About Kullu Manali

Kullu, or Kulu, is the capital town of the Kullu District in the Indian state ofHimachal Pradesh. It is located on the banks of the Beas River in the Kullu Valley about ten kilometres north of the airport at Bhuntar.

Kullu is a broad open valley formed by the Beas river between Manali and Largi. This valley is famous for its temples, beauty and its majestic hills covered with Pine and Deodar Forest and sprawling Apple Orchards. The course of the Beas river presents a succession of magnificent, clad with forests of Deodar, towering above trees of Pine on the lower rocky ridges. Kullu valley is sandwiched between the Pir Panjal, Lower Himalayan and Great Himalayan range.

History of Kullu Manali

Kullu (1,220 m or 4,000 ft) was once known as Kulanthpitha - `the end of the habitable world`. Beyond rose the forbidding heights of the Greater Himalayas and, by the banks of the shining river Beas, lay the fabled `Silver Valley`.

The Chinese pilgrim monk Xuanzang visited the Kullu Valley in 634 or 635 CE. He described it as a fertile region completely surrounded by mountains, about 3,000 li in circuit, with a capital 14 or 15 li in circumference. It contained a stupa (tope)built by Ashoka, which is said to mark the place where the Buddha preached to the local people and made conversions, stupa was taken away by a mughal ruler and put in feroz shah kotla maidan in Delhi. There were some twenty Buddhist monasteries, with about 1,000 monks, most of whom were Mahayanist. There were also some fifteen Hindu temples, and people of both faiths lived mixed together. There were meditation caves near the mountain passes inhabited by both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners. The country is said to have produced gold, silver, red copper, crystal lenses and bell-metal.[1]

"Thus, Ku-zu is the Bu-nan name for Kuḷū. . . . Dr. Vogel in his MS. notes on Lahul gives Ku-zuṅ as the Gārī (Bu-nan) name of Kuḷū. Ku-zuṅ is the locative case of Ku-zu. He adds that Kuḷū is called Ram-ti by the people of Ti-nan, and Ram-di by those of Caṅsa (Me-rlog). The Tibetans call it Ñuṅ-ti."[2]

Kullu got its first motorable access only after Indian Independence. The long centuries of seclusion have, however, allowed the area to retain a considerable measure of its traditional charm. The road through the Kullu Valley and Lahaul is now paved all the way, to connect and provide the major access route between the northern Indian plains to Leh in Ladakh.